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Phosphate availability affects the thylakoid lipid composition and the expression of SQD1, a gene required for sulfolipid biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana.

ABSTRACT: Photosynthetic membranes of higher plants contain specific nonphosphorous lipids like the sulfolipid sulfoquinovosyl diacylglycerol in addition to the ubiquitous phospholipid phosphatidylglycerol. In bacteria, an environmental factor that drastically affects thylakoid lipid composition appears to be the availability of phosphate. Accordingly, we discovered an increase in the relative amount of sulfolipid and a concomitant decrease in phosphatidylglycerol in Arabidopsis thaliana grown on medium with reduced amounts of phosphate, as well as in the pho1 mutant of A. thaliana deficient in phosphate transport. To investigate the molecular basis of the observed change in lipid composition, we isolated a cDNA of A. thaliana, designated SQD1, that encodes a protein involved in sulfolipid biosynthesis as suggested by three lines of evidence. First, the cDNA shows high sequence similarity to bacterial sqdB genes known to be essential for sulfolipid biosynthesis; second, the SQD1 gene product is imported into chloroplasts where sulfolipid biosynthesis takes place; and third, transgenic plants expressing SQD1 in antisense orientation show a reduction in sulfolipid content. In the pho1 mutant as well as in wild-type plants grown under reduced phosphate availability, increased amounts of SQD1 mRNA and SQD1 protein are detected, suggesting that the increase in sulfolipid content under phosphate limitation is the result of an increased expression of at least one gene required for sulfolipid biosynthesis in A. thaliana. It is suggested that a certain amount of anionic thylakoid lipid is maintained by substituting sulfolipid for phosphatidylglycerol under reduced phosphate availability.

SUBMITTER: Essigmann B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC19220 | biostudies-literature | 1998 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Phosphate availability affects the thylakoid lipid composition and the expression of SQD1, a gene required for sulfolipid biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Essigmann B B Güler S S Narang R A RA Linke D D Benning C C

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 19980201 4

Photosynthetic membranes of higher plants contain specific nonphosphorous lipids like the sulfolipid sulfoquinovosyl diacylglycerol in addition to the ubiquitous phospholipid phosphatidylglycerol. In bacteria, an environmental factor that drastically affects thylakoid lipid composition appears to be the availability of phosphate. Accordingly, we discovered an increase in the relative amount of sulfolipid and a concomitant decrease in phosphatidylglycerol in Arabidopsis thaliana grown on medium w ...[more]

PMID: 9465123

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Project description:Second-generation biofuels are generally produced from the polysaccharides in the lignocellulosic plant biomass, mainly cellulose. However, because cellulose is embedded in a matrix of other polysaccharides and lignin, its hydrolysis into the fermentable glucose is hampered. The senesced inflorescence stems of a set of 20 Arabidopsis thaliana mutants in 10 different genes of the lignin biosynthetic pathway were analyzed for cell wall composition and saccharification yield. Saccharification models were built to elucidate which cell wall parameters played a role in cell wall recalcitrance.Although lignin is a key polymer providing the strength necessary for the plant's ability to grow upward, a reduction in lignin content down to 64% of the wild-type level in Arabidopsis was tolerated without any obvious growth penalty. In contrast to common perception, we found that a reduction in lignin was not compensated for by an increase in cellulose, but rather by an increase in matrix polysaccharides. In most lignin mutants, the saccharification yield was improved by up to 88% cellulose conversion for the cinnamoyl-coenzyme A reductase1 mutants under pretreatment conditions, whereas the wild-type cellulose conversion only reached 18%. The saccharification models and Pearson correlation matrix revealed that the lignin content was the main factor determining the saccharification yield. However, also lignin composition, matrix polysaccharide content and composition, and, especially, the xylose, galactose, and arabinose contents influenced the saccharification yield. Strikingly, cellulose content did not significantly affect saccharification yield.Although the lignin content had the main effect on saccharification, also other cell wall factors could be engineered to potentially increase the cell wall processability, such as the galactose content. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the effect of lignin perturbations on plant cell wall composition and its influence on saccharification yield, and provide new potential targets for genetic improvement.

Dataset Information

Phosphate availability affects the thylakoid lipid composition and the expression of SQD1, a gene required for sulfolipid biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Publications

Phosphate availability affects the thylakoid lipid composition and the expression of SQD1, a gene required for sulfolipid biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Similar Datasets

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